Retinal image location of hand, fingers, and objects during manual tasks.

Purpose: A new method was developed using the scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) to investigate the effects of central visual loss on eye-hand coordination in manual tasks. Using the SLO, the retinal positions of the hand, fingers, and objects are imaged and recorded while a subject performs a manual task.

Method: A video camera images the subject's hand and objects to be manipulated in the SLO laser-beam raster, producing a video image of a subject's hand, fingers, and objects on the subject's retina while the objects are manipulated. A subject with bilateral central scotomas and an age-matched control subject with normal vision traced an ellipse with the index finger, tapped four disks in sequence, and carried out a pattern duplication task with pegs. Retinal positions of the fovea or preferred retinal locus (PRL), fingers, and objects were measured from digitized SLO images.

Results: In all tasks, the fovea or PRL was directed to an object or position before the fingers arrived. This lead time was much greater for the scotoma subject than the control subject ( approximately 1400 vs. approximately 400 ms, respectively). The scotoma subject was much less accurate in placing the PRL and fingers on objects and required substantially more time for task completion than the control subject.

Conclusions: The coordination of foveal fixation and finger placement found with the SLO method was similar to that found by others using eyetracking techniques with visually normal subjects. The presence of a central scotoma and use of a PRL caused marked deterioration in the quality of this coordination. Unlike eyetracking methods, the SLO technique does not require calibration because the positions of the fingers and objects are directly observable on the retina. This method could be useful in studying eye-hand coordination of individuals with scotomas that affect foveal vision.